Details of A Tribute To Buddy Holly and the Ticket Luck value

A Tribute to Buddy HollyA tribute to Buddy Holly is the critically acclaimed tribute concert starring John Mueller as Buddy Holly, Ray Anthony as Ritchie Valens and Jay Richardson as the Big Bopper and his real life son.

Incepted in 1999, the concert has re-created the original Winter Dance Party tour of 1959 that was tragically the last for Holly, Valens and Jay. A lot of people say that Buddy Holly lives on through John Mueller while the Chicago Tribune reports this sentiment as 'John is a living proof of Buddy Holly's legacy'.

February 3, 1959 is often remembered as the day the music died when Buddy Holly climbed into a rattling Beechcraft Bonanza on a frozen airstrip near Mason City, and a few short minutes later became the world's first dead rock 'n' roll star.

It's hard to believe, but at the time of Buddy Holly's death, he had only been recording for two years. Yet during the course of his music short career, Holly had written and performed the most progressive music of his time while laying the musical foundation for groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and musicians generations to come.

Born in Lubbock Texas on September 7th, 1936, Buddy Holly grew up in a modest environment. Following his elder brothers who already played a couple of instruments, Holly started off his musical journey at the age of eleven with piano lessons.

He was applauded by his teacher as one of her top students. Later he quit playing piano and began learning guitar. It wasn't long before Buddy was entertaining his friends on the school bus and considering a musical career.

He performed during his teen years with close friend Bob Montgomery. Calling themselves as Buddy and Bob, the two would perform local events throughout Lubbock, Texas.

It was after opening a show for Elvis Presley at a local gig in 1955 when Buddy realized what he wanted to do. Success, however, didn't come until he formed his new group, the Crickets. The other members of the Crickets were Jerry Allison on drums, Niki Sullivan on guitar, and Joe Maudlin on bass.

The group began to record 'That'll Be The day' which hit the top of the charts in September of 1957. The Crickets continued their success by giving hit after hit. Songs like 'Oh Boy' and 'Peggy Sue' raised the band to the stardom. Later, Buddy split from the Crickets, married Maria Santiago and relocated to Greenwich Village in New York City.

Buddy Holly recorded songs like 'True Love Ways' and 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' which were powerful and filled with promise. In January 1959, he along with Ritchie Valens, the big bopper and other acts embarked on a tour billed as the winter dance party.

From the very beginning, the tour was plagued with difficulties. The tour buses inability to stay running, a faulty heater, and the series of one-night shows caused many of the artists to catch cold and flu.

Tired of the miserable conditions, Buddy decided to charter a plane. Holly, Valens, and Richardson along with their pilot Roger Peterson took off from the Mason City airport and all four men perished when their four seat aircraft crashed.

It was a terrible tragedy that took the musical fraternity many years to realize and so Don Mclean hauntingly put it in his 1971 hit, 'The day the music died'. John Mueller begs to differ with McLean, 'I think that was poetic of Don McLean. But no, I don't think music died'.

John Mueller himself is a living proof of Buddy Holly's vitality. Mueller's lovingly detailed portrayal of the skinny, spectacled kid from Lubbock, Texas, rings as clear and true as a chord from a Fender Stratocaster. He uses the same heavy, flat-wound strings that Buddy used to achieve that clarion sound.

John Mueller and Buddy Holy both grew up in flat, dry, featureless towns but were blessed with supportive parents. Mueller took auto shop classes and rebuilt his '66 Chevy Malibu into a boss hot rod. He took an acting class his senior year in high school that sealed Mueller's fate. The Buddy Holly Story opened in Kansas City in January, 1996.

After seeing it, fans were very quick to realize that before John Mueller played Buddy Holly, never has the rock and roll legend been so faithfully portrayed. The concert won a Drama Desk award whereas John gained critical acclaimed.

John Mueller's Winter Dance Party is the official live and authentic re-creation of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper's last tour in 1959. Each live concert performance lasts over two hours of unbridled, high voltage entertainment featuring all the hit songs of the 50's era.

The Winter Dance Party show has performed in front of over 2 million people on national TV for the Jerry Lewis Telethon. The trio has toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada at several venues. Today Buddy Holy's music is alive and is brought back to life to pack houses around the United States, Canada and Europe.